EVANSTON, Wyoming WyoFile Following their abrupt closure by an out-of-state corporate owner last week, Wyoming newspaper entrepreneurs Robb and Jen Hicks and Rob Mortimore said Tuesday that they had reached an agreement to buy eight local newspapers and would continue to operate them.
What greater news is there? According to Marie Hamilton, managing editor and reporter for the Guernsey Gazette and Platte County Record-Times, two of the publications. Regarding the staff’s response to the announcement, she said there were many tears, but they were good tears.
RELATED | Press halt: Historic setback for Wyoming Press Corps
The News Media Corporation, based in Illinois, abruptly shut down its magazines in Niobrara, Goshen, Platte, Sublette, Lincoln, and Uinta counties six days prior to the announcement. According to Robb Hicks, the sale deal stipulates that all newspaper employees must be rehired and that all titles must start publishing again right away.
In a statement shared on the newspapers’ Facebook pages, he stated, “We are honored to assume stewardship of these legacy community newspapers.” Making ensuring these counties don’t lose a reliable, long-lasting source of local news has been our top focus.
In the announcement, Mortimore conveyed his sincere gratitude to the previous owner, JJ Tompkins.
According to Mortimore, it would have been far easier for him to comply with the demands of his creditors. Rather, he partnered with us to protect these towns in Wyoming, to keep their newspapers alive, and to make sure all workers were compensated and kept on board.
The value of the new in-state ownership was highlighted by an ecstatic Hamilton, who called Mortimore “pulling a rabbit out of his hat.”
She claimed that he is a Goshen lad of Mortimore, who was raised in Torrington and has a lengthy history of working for and managing publications in the state. People from Wyoming must come up with answers for Wyoming’s concerns.
Group publisher Mortimore will remain in his role. He resides in Torrington with his spouse, Shaylee. Since 1996, the Buffalo Bulletin has been owned and run by the Hicks, with Jen Sieve-Hicks serving as executive editor and Robb as publisher. According to the release, the Hicks family has seven decades of ties to Wyoming publications.
Following News Media Corporation’s announcement on Wednesday that it was abruptly and immediately closing its newspapers in Wheatland, Torrington, Evanston, Pinedale, Kemmerer, Lusk, Lyman, and Guernsey, the arrangement was reached. About two dozen newspapers in five states abruptly went dark, including the eight Wyoming publications with 30 staff.
Mortimore was the publisher of News Media Corporation subsidiary Wyoming Newspapers Inc. Despite being in charge of News Media Corporation’s newspapers in Wyoming and Nebraska, he and the staff he controlled say the closure last Wednesday caught them off guard.
Hamilton claimed that the Wyoming newspapers had nothing to do with this shutdown. Every one of our papers turned a profit.
Mortimore and several laid-off staff began searching for ways to keep the newspapers afloat because they were unwilling to let their areas turn into news deserts overnight. Hamilton and other employees continued to work on the papers without getting paid. Hamilton anticipates getting paid by the end of this week in accordance with the purchase agreement.
I answered, “I don’t care,” even though we will receive our money on Friday. “You just informed me that my newspaper has returned,” Hamilton said to WyoFile.
It wasn’t just Mortimore and the Hicks who were trying to get the publications back up and running.
Late last week, WyoFile was informed by Darcie Hoffland, executive director of the Wyoming Press Association, the state’s newspaper trade group, that the association has been frantically trying to assist in finding a solution.
To get these documents open as soon as possible, many people who care about these communities are working extremely hard to get the job, she said.
For a newspaper to be considered an official newspaper of record and be able to print legally required public notices—a sought-after source of funding that has supported Wyoming newspapers—it must publish an edition at least once a week, according to state law. Eight out of 39 legitimate newspapers in Wyoming were owned by News Media Corporation.
Due to newspaper closures, counties and towns throughout the state were considering other methods of publishing legal notices, such as transferring the publication to another newspaper or putting them in their clerk’s offices.
The Pinedale Following instructions from its parent firm in Illinois to cancel the August 7 print edition, which had already been reported, edited, and created, Roundup ended its publishing run last week. Cali O. Hare, the managing editor of Roundup, then announced the shutdown on the paper’s website and Facebook page. The eight newspapers had additional news to share online today, sharing the recently signed acquisition deal on their Facebook pages.
In a message sent to staff members last Wednesday, CEO Tompkins of News Media Corporation stated that health insurance coverage would be immediately discontinued and that the company will use every reasonable attempt to give last paychecks.
Financial difficulties, a major economic crisis affecting our industry, revenue losses and rising costs, and the recent failure of a bid to sell the company were all mentioned by Tompkins in the note to staff.
In late July, Mortimore told employees that a possible planto sale to the Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group was no longer a possibility.
According to Tompkins, the business has looked into every option to keep going, but it has come to a point where it is not practical to carry on.
Wyoming people, places, and policy are the focus of WyoFileis, an independent nonprofit news company.
